Research what a poo pyramid is and don’t make one in your black tank. 🙂
Get plastic or metal plates, cups, and serving stuff for the kitchen. It didn’t take many trips for our first trailer to turn our regular ceramic plates to sand.
Make your first trip or two someplace very close to home. If you forgot anything or have a disaster it’s easier to deal with by a quick run home rather than being 100 miles away.
Find a parking lot and practice backing up, and work out how you’ll communicate with the person guiding you as you back. Screaming out the back window is a customary beginners method but not optimal ????
As a tent camper going to a trailer… you probably aren’t interested in going to an RV Resort/RV Parking lot for the weekend. So, you’ll probably want to camp off-grid.
I cannot strongly enough recommend 2×100 watt solar panels ($100 each), a charge controller ($50) and replacing/upgrading your current battery with a pair of golf cart batteries ($100 each).
Start with the solar panels and charge controller with your existing battery to save money until you discover you need more battery. That will power everything in the trailer indefinitely except your air conditioner and microwave.
If you are handy it’s pretty easy to install on the roof. If not, get a solar panel with a stand and just set it up facing the sun, clip the cables on the battery and you can camp until the water tank is empty/gray tank is full.
We went years with that basic/inexpensive solar system and never fired up the generator.
Keep all your manuals.
I recently joined the club as well. Here are some of my takeaways as of recently:
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Take tools. Multiple screwdrivers, at least two adjustable wrenches, a hammer, etc. I went through my tools and picked duplicates I had and threw them in a soft toolbox. You don’t need everything, but the RV rules state that what you don’t take you will need at least once.
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Get a sewer cleanout plug wrench, and sewer fitting wrench. Camco makes both. Watch the dirt (especially sand!) in the threads when putting this stuff on…3 days in heat and sand and it’s a hammer/wrench/screwdriver job to get off.
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You probably won’t need leveling blocks depending on where you camp…most RV sites are already level enough, but you will need wheel chocks no matter what.
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Stabilizers are for stabilizing, not for weight bearing.
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Get a 50amp -> 30amp bone adapter. Get a 30 amp->20 amp (regular US plug) adapter. Throw them in storage…when you need one, you will thank me.
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Water pressure regulators are a thing…you probably need one. We use a Renator M-11. I don’t recommend the cheap “in-line” ones…they do the job, but restrict flow.
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Electrical protection is a thing too…and expensive. Get a hard wired one if possible…plug-in if nothing else. Surgegard Brand.
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If you’re on city water, you don’t need to run your water pump…turn it off.
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Black tank stays closed when hooked up to a sewer…gray tank can remain open. Don’t open the black tank until you ready to dump. ever. seriously.
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Sewer is gross. Wear gloves. Get a few pairs.
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You need TWO transparent fittings off your sewer…one 90 degree at the sewer cap going into the group. Another 45 degree one…this allows you to see what is coming out. Gross! But, you know when the thanks are relative clean. Gloves…can’t say that enough.
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Two types of boxes in storage: Clean box and a Dirty box. We use different colored plastic storage bins. Clean stuff (fresh water hose, water regulator, etc.) never touches the dirty stuff (sewer fittings, sewer wrenches, cleanout hose…yep you need two types of hoses, dirty/used gloves, toilet spray wand, etc.
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Youtube is your friend….I absolutely love My RV Works, Inc. (technical) and Chadwick Family Films (entertaining and practical)
Good Luck!
I started out as a backpacker, then a tent camper, then (when the babies started coming) a tent-trailerer (no sleeping on the ground anymore) then I got my first trailer. The smaller the better, since my idea of camping is to be outdoors, to be camping, to be hiking, fishing, boating — not sitting inside watching television — unless it’s raining, snowing, blowing, nighttime, or snuggle time. The more time I spend OUTSIDE of my trailer, the better camping experience I have. Yes, I have a little flatscreen with a blu-ray player and a draw full of movies. I prefer to cook outside — unless conditions as above described, make it preferable to cook inside.
You scored a beautiful little trailer — congratulations. The more you can boondock — get out in the woods away from RV Parks and cheek-to-jowl campgrounds, the more your trailer will prove it’s worth. Have fun!
Don’t forget a frying pan. We did on our first trip with an RV. Never forgot it when we where tenting.
Edit: And a spatula.
Source: From tent to Winnie Drop. Any trailer tips for a noob?
